Quantum of Solace: The Making of Modern Consciousness, Part II - Page 2

The Left looks to international law and justice as being a more truthful expression of the new morality and heightened consciousness; the Right dismisses all such efforts as being un-American and striking at the very heart of our Constitution.

The Left sees the Constitution and its attendant Bill of Rights as an open-ended document, nothing more than a blueprint, more binding in spirit than the letter; the Right adheres to the principle of strict interpretation and tends to view all emendations (whether by way of new laws or amendments) with suspicion, as specious constructs which only erode the authority of a timeless document and undermine the original intent of the founders.

The Left is an ardent proponent of human rights: civil rights, the right of free speech, the right of choice as regards abortion and equal treatment at home and in the workplace, the right of freedom from gender or ethnic discrimination, the right to a level playing field; the Right tends to view some of those rights as dubious entitlements and therefore contrary to the spirit of freedom and free enterprise, as countermanding in fact the very principles which made this country great.

But herein lies the rub. The forces which account for the emergence of the New Left – fired by idealism and propelled by the incessant (obsession is the right word), with universal justice, are the very same forces which brought about the near-phenomenal explosion of popular consciousness (see "Quantum of Solace, Part I"), an explosion on a scale never encountered before. One could say in fact that both phenomena, equally unique and unprecedented in the history of humankind, are not only coincidental, but two sides of the same coin.

To put it more succinctly: if the New Left is the medium, then the new and expanded consciousness is the message.

Interestingly, selfsame results obtain from examining the operational definition of the New Left in the introduction to "The Hidden Dimension" series:

The [New] Left . . . is public opinion mobilized around some polarizing moral issue or issues, and which has attained sufficient critical mass to affect major political decisions in matters of public policy and in any area even remotely connected to the issue at hand.

Little did I know at the time of the writing that when I offered this definition, I would be describing “the new consciousness” as well. And yet, come to think of it, all the elements I attributed to the latter in “Quantum of Solace” are present in the definition of the New Left: public opinion, critical mass, and a succinctly moral outlook. It’s arguable, in fact, that public opinion and its impact in determining public policy (with the possible exception of the brief interlude of the revolutionary France and the formation of the Fourth Estate, prompted as both may have been by the Age of Enlightenment and the writings of the philosophes) are, relatively speaking, modern 20th century phenomena, made possible by the unprecedented explosion in the areas of mass communications and the media. Which would make “public opinion” co-equivalent with “the new consciousness,” or at least with the predominant expression thereof. So if the New Left is the main organ, the new and enhanced morality is its most natural expression.

Article Author: Roger Nowosielski

I'm Polish-born but as American as apple-pie. I've seen a great many changes since I first set foot in this land in 1961 - many of them, I'm afraid, not for the better. Thanks to the Internet era and the "blogging" phenomenon, we can address the issues …

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